How to get up from the floor after a fall – MacGyver Style!

Help. I can’t get Up!

If you find yourself on the floor unable to get up, it can be a scary and dangerous situation to find yourself in. As a Rehabilitation Therapist, I have heard countless sad stories over the years from people who have spent hours or even days on the floor before a friend or family member came to their rescue.

Spending multiple hours, or a day or more on the floor, can result in devastating effects on health and the ability to live independently. It is therefore critical to turn on your survival skills and work quickly on finding a way to get yourself up or get help as soon as possible.

Fall Recovery Techniques

Each person’s reason for being unable to get up from the floor will be different. Some people are not able to get up from the floor because of stiff arthritic joints or due to an illness that results in weakness, such as Multiple Sclerosis or Parkinson’s Disease, and for others it may be due to a new injury sustained during the fall.

Since everyone has different underlying problems and different reasons for being unable to get up from the floor, one fall recovery technique doesn’t work for everyone. In under 10 minutes, the short video attached above “How to get up from the floor – MacGyver style!” demonstrates 10 different fall recovery techniques. Most importantly of all, it will show you how to creatively think outside of the box to enhance your chance of either finding a way to get yourself up from the floor or alert someone else you need help.

2 Comments

One out of three older adults (those aged 65 or older) falls each year but less than half talk to their healthcare providers about it.
Among older adults, falls are the leading cause of both fatal and nonfatal injuries.
In 2012, 2.4 million nonfatal falls among older adults were treated in emergency departments and more than 722,000 of these patients were hospitalized.
In 2012, the direct medical costs of falls, adjusted for inflation, were $30 billion.

Rhonda-Thanks for the very helpful video on how to get up from a fall. Watching you go through each movement showed the 2 steps that I skipped when I tried several times to get up from the floor. I will remember them next time I fall and hopefully I’ll be able to get up by myself.